Chicagoans were not taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. They weren’t staying home or obeying the rules communicated through typical media channels. The mayor was even forced to close down popular parks and beaches due to overcrowding during a critical stage of the pandemic.

Our challenge was to help the mayor launch her “Stay Home, Save Lives” campaign with a groundbreaking PSA that educated Chicagoans on the seriousness of the pandemic, convincing them to stay home and stop the spread of the disease.

Our objective was simple yet vital: convince Chicagoans to quarantine in their homes to stem the spread of the virus in the city and around the nation. Seeing as our target audience was essentially all of Chicago, we knew we needed to come up with a solution that would catch their attention and lead to more eyes seeing the work.

The core of our idea was twofold. One, we used humor - a landmark, cultural asset in Chicago - in our PSAs to break through during a serious time. Two, we featured Mayor Lightfoot herself as the star of our PSAs—using her meme-worthy presence in an unexpected way—to show our typically serious, all-business mayor in a humorous light and in relatable quarantine situations.

Our strategy naturally had to be effective for people of all backgrounds – as many Chicagoans weren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough and everyone was at risk. However, we knew that many young people in Chicago were notoriously defying stay at home orders. Our approach used humor in order to break through the COVID-19 news media on social media and TV and get young Chicagoans to pay attention. A simple, straightforward but powerful and memorable call to action helped our message resonate with viewers: Stay Home, Save Lives.

We believed that showing our typically serious, all-business mayor in a humorous light and in relatable quarantine situations would disarm viewers and catch their attention more so than usual.

In turn, we knew that working with the mayor, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, would mean working with a limited crew on a tight schedule. We only had one location for a one-day shoot, all while following strict safety protocols. Our films had to be simple enough to execute flawlessly yet be memorable, so we crafted short scripts for the mayor that would be easy to perform and allow us to film a variety of short films in a small window of time. We also used an on-the-fly improvisational style that garnered memorable performances from our star, who had very little acting experience.

Our impact was immediate and quickly generated more than 62 million impressions worldwide. Our PSAs garnered over 96,000 views on YouTube. The mayor’s tweet featuring our work garnered over 12,000 likes and over 6,000 retweets. Donated media ensured the work was widely seen in Chicago and nationwide.

The campaign garnered earned media coverage in broadcast TV, including all of the regional Chicago TV news channels, as well as national shows like NBC’s Today show, Trevor Noah and CNN.

The mayor’s PSA campaign and tough approach to combating COVID-19 in Chicago led to earned media coverage in global and lifestyle media including BBC and Elle Magazine. Michelle Obama even posted about the mayor’s leadership on her Instagram page of over 44 million followers. This helped spread the message and contribute to decreasing COVID-19 numbers in the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois and nationwide - proving the Windy City could contain the pandemic.